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High on the Hog

Editor:

Greatly disappointed reading Thadeus Greenson's take on why the government needs to dig deeper into our wallets, to keep the bureaucracy functioning ("Busted," Aug. 14). He seems to completely ignore the fact that government pensions are the cause of our plight. Calling themselves public servants has apparently worked on Thad, as they are the first servants in history to earn significantly more than their "masters" (30 percent by some surveys). In addition to the typical job security granted public employees (a recent cut in the local school system resulted in no layoffs, "we can find a place for them," whereas mighty Microsoft laid off 16,000). A "retired" public servant is also much closer to being a Lotto winner than a servant, and the Lotto prize, is, of course, their pension.

Their pension is actually very similar to getting the same check and benefits that they got while actually working! 'Til the day they die!!

This windfall extends to their spouse when they die. How did the public ever agree to such largess, you might ask? Well, they did not. The windfall was granted during hard fought negotiations, with, guess who, other government employees! The public was only represented in the abstract. All this largess while we have actual citizens living in ditches and under bridges.

Could go on, offering many interesting vignettes to embellish, but space requires a finale. Shameless to the end, the major selling point to funding these unfunded pensions is not, "We need pension money?" No, it is fewer police, the one thing most people fear most! Thad did include one passing reference to this, the real problem, but it was not very well marked out, and was surrounded in a bunch of pro-bureaucracy B.S. from the very people benefiting from the "problem."